Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN ROMAN COULD NO LONGER TRUST
Celeste Vale was waiting in Roman’s penthouse when he returned.
That surprised him.
Running would have made sense.
Instead, she sat alone in the dark living room, holding a photograph of their mother.
Emma carried Caleb toward the nursery.
Roman stopped her.
“Stay where I can see you.”
Emma understood.
Victor remained near the elevator.
Roman crossed the room.
Celeste looked up.
“You found him.”
Roman didn’t answer.
Caleb made a soft sound.
Celeste began crying.
“Thank God.”
Roman placed his gun on the marble table.
Not because he trusted her.
Because he wanted both hands free.
“Leonard Shaw.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
Roman continued.
“You brought him here.”
“Yes.”
Emma stared.
“You knew him?”
“Yes.”
“You knew he falsified my medical records?”
Celeste’s voice was barely audible.
“Yes.”
Roman felt his anger sharpen.
“You knew Caleb was Emma’s biological child?”
Celeste looked at him.
“Not until two months ago.”
“And Lucy?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Roman nearly broke.
Emma beat him to the question.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Roman laughed.
“You’re developing a pattern.”
Celeste stood.
“Shaw told me Caleb was in danger.”
“So you invited him into my home?”
“He showed me bloodwork. He said Caleb carried a genetic condition inherited from Emma.”
Emma frowned.
“What condition?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“I did. He gave me complicated explanations.”
Emma’s jaw tightened.
“I’m a physician. You could have called me.”
Celeste looked at her.
“I thought you hated Roman.”
The sentence hurt more than Emma expected.
Celeste continued.
“For three years I believed you stole from him and disappeared. Then two months ago Shaw arrived and said the truth was worse. He told me you had been involved in unauthorized embryo experiments.”
Emma stared.
“And you believed him?”
“He had documents.”
“Forged documents.”
“I know that now.”
Roman stepped closer.
“What did Shaw give you?”
Celeste swallowed.
“A bottle of medication.”
Emma’s face went still.
“For Caleb?”
“He said three drops in his formula would prevent seizures.”
Roman said nothing.
Celeste’s voice broke.
“I swear I didn’t know it would hurt him.”
“You put an unknown prescription in my infant son’s bottle.”
“I was trying to protect him.”
Roman looked at her for a long time.
“Everyone keeps saying that while destroying my family.”
Celeste cried harder.
“I’m sorry.”
Roman’s anger did not disappear.
But he saw something he recognized.
Manipulation.
Their father had manipulated Celeste for years by telling her she was responsible for keeping the family together.
Shaw had used the same weakness.
Emma asked, “Where is Shaw now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You met him here today.”
“He left before Caleb got sick.”
“What did he want?”
Celeste hesitated.
Roman noticed.
“What did he want?”
“A key.”
Victor spoke for the first time.
“What key?”
Celeste looked at Roman.
“The one your mother left you.”
Roman frowned.
“I don’t have a key from Mom.”
Celeste nodded.
“You do.”
She pointed toward the old grandfather clock near the windows.
Their mother’s clock.
Roman had moved it from the family estate after Thomas’s death.
Celeste crossed the room.
She opened the lower wooden panel.
Inside was a narrow brass compartment Roman had never seen.
A small key rested inside.
Engraved on it:
L.V.
Lenora Vale.
Roman picked it up.
“What does it open?”
Celeste shook her head.
“Shaw thinks it opens a safety deposit box.”
Victor whispered, “Beacon Federal.”
Roman turned.
“You know that too?”
“Thomas once mentioned Lenora kept records outside family institutions.”
Roman’s mother had always disliked Thomas’s medical investments.
Roman remembered arguments behind doors.
Her saying, Children are not assets.
His father replying, Everything becomes an asset if someone values it enough.
He had been fourteen.
He had forgotten the conversation.
Until now.
Roman called Marco.
“Beacon Federal. Find every account my mother had.”
Emma carried Caleb into the nursery while Roman followed.
She changed him, examined him again and watched him drink from a sealed hospital bottle she had taken herself.
Caleb’s eyes fluttered.
Gray-blue.
Emma’s eyes.
Roman stood behind her.
“He looks like you.”
Emma stopped.
“So does Lucy.”
The thought nearly undid her.
Roman sat beside her.
“What did Katherine mean when she said she thought she was rescuing them from my family?”
Emma held Caleb closer.
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
She looked at him.
“I think she was afraid of your father.”
“She should have been.”
“So was I.”
Roman accepted the blow.
“I believed the evidence.”
“You believed it fast.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t look for me.”
“I almost did.”
Emma smiled sadly.
“Almost doesn’t matter much after three years.”
Roman looked at Caleb.
“I thought you left because you discovered what I really was.”
“What were you?”
“Not the man you wanted.”
Emma’s eyes softened despite herself.
“I knew exactly who you were.”
“No. You knew the version I let you see.”
“And you knew the version of me who thought she could fix everyone.”
Roman almost smiled.
“Still do.”
Caleb yawned.
For one impossible moment they looked like any exhausted parents sitting beside a crib.
Then Marco called.
Roman answered.
“I found the box.”
“Location?”
“Beacon Federal private vault. Account opened by Lenora Vale twenty-eight years ago. Roman, there’s something strange.”
“What?”
“It requires two keys.”
Roman looked at the brass key.
“And the second?”
“Registered to Katherine Carter.”
Emma stared.
“My sister?”
Marco continued.
“The access record shows someone tried to enter the box yesterday.”
“Who?”
“Leonard Shaw.”
Roman stood.
“Meet us there.”
Beacon Federal occupied an old granite building in downtown Boston.
At midnight it should have been closed.
Roman owned enough of the right favors to change that.
The bank president arrived personally.
They entered a private vault.
Roman inserted his mother’s key.
The second lock remained.
Emma shook her head.
“We don’t have Katherine’s.”
Victor looked at the compass bracelet in Emma’s hand.
“Maybe we do.”
Emma frowned.
He pointed at the charm.
The compass unscrewed.
Inside was a miniature steel key.
Emma stared.
“Katherine gave this to me when we were teenagers.”
Roman inserted it.
The box opened.
Inside were no jewels.
No cash.
Only files.
Videotapes.
Birth certificates.
And a leather journal.
Lenora Vale’s handwriting filled the first page.
Roman read aloud.
If my son ever finds this, then I failed to stop his father.
He turned pages.
Names.
Payments.
Medical transfers.
Lenora had documented everything.
At the back was a photograph.
Thomas Vale.
Leonard Shaw.
And Victor.
Roman slowly raised his eyes.
Victor took a step backward.
“Roman.”
“You told me you discovered this after my father disappeared.”
“I did.”
Roman held up the photo.
“You’re standing beside Shaw twenty years ago.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“I can explain.”
Emma whispered, “Please don’t say that.”
Roman opened another envelope.
Inside was a document naming three founders of an organization called The Harbor Program.
Thomas Vale.
Leonard Shaw.
Victor Vale.
Roman pulled his gun.
Victor raised his hands.
“I helped create the foundation.”
“You helped traffic children.”
“No.”
“Your name says otherwise.”
“We began as an illegal adoption pipeline.”
Emma stared.
Victor continued quickly.
“Families with money wanted children. Mothers with no resources were pressured into surrender. It was wrong. I know that.”
Roman’s eyes were empty.
“And then?”
“Thomas took it further. Genetic records. Embryos. Leverage.”
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Because I spent twenty years trying to undo it.”
Roman’s finger rested near the trigger.
A phone rang.
Not Roman’s.
Inside the vault box.
An old flip phone.
Everyone froze.
Roman picked it up.
Answered.
“Hello, son.”
Roman stopped breathing.
Thomas Vale.
Alive.
Roman’s father continued:
“Before you shoot Victor, understand something.”
Roman looked directly at his uncle.
Thomas said:
“He is the only reason Emma survived.”
Roman’s voice turned to ice.
“Where are you?”
“Trying to correct my mistakes.”
“You had three years.”
“I had thirty.”
“Where is Lucy?”
Silence.
Roman repeated:
“Where is my daughter?”
Thomas exhaled.
“She’s with me.”
Emma lunged toward the phone.
“Katherine too?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Yes.”
Emma covered her mouth.
Roman said, “Give me an address.”
“You’re not ready.”
“My six-month-old daughter is with a dead man who stole her embryos from her mother. I’m ready.”
Thomas’s voice weakened.
“You need Lenora’s journal.”
“I have it.”
“Then you know who started the Harbor Program.”
“You did.”
“No.”
Roman frowned.
May you like
Thomas whispered:
“Your mother did.”
